Peanut Butter Banana Green Smoothie

Now, I know one of the words in the title of this recipe seems glaringly out of place to you, and it’s not “peanut butter” “banana” or “smoothie.” In fact, you might even think that I placed the wrong photo here, instead inserting one from my gallery of vintage Ecto-Cooler glam shots. But today is Earth Day, and I’m giving you an appropriately green gift: introducing you to the trend of Green Smoothies.

Green Smoothies are an easy way to incorporate more raw leafy greens into your diet by blending them with fruit and drinking the mix like a smoothie. Pioneered by fervent raw foodists like Victoria Boutenko, green smoothies taste like fruit but are packed with all the nutrients that we know come from leafy greens like calcium, iron, B vitamins and cancer-fighting antioxidants. They make a great snack or a quick breakfast in the morning.

Since this green smoothie is likely your first, I’ve used banana and natural peanut butter because they have very strong, dominating flavors. Baby spinach has such a delicate flavor so all you will taste in the final smoothie will be peanut butter and banana. I promise. But boy will it be green. If you are hesitant, try using only 1 cup of the baby spinach.

Have you ever tried green smoothies before or heard the health claims about them? Are you afraid or excited to try this?

1. Put the banana and peanut butter into the blender and puree until smooth. Then, 1 cup at a time, add the spinach, each time blending until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the blender with a spatula between blends and add a tablespoon or so of water if you need to get the spinach blending. Then add the ice cubes, if using, and pulse until smooth.

21 responses to “Peanut Butter Banana Green Smoothie”

It’s funny I’ve had something like this before and used to make it all the time…when I had a blender! I got a version of this from a friend: Berries, 1/2 banana, almond milk, flax oil, and fresh spinach. All you can taste is the berry flavor and it is packed with energy. More ways to eat spinach please and thanks! xoxoxooxo

YUM this sounds really good. Also I like Claire’s idea of adding flax oil and almond milk for creaminess. Only problem is I no longer have a blender. I’ll have to see if I’m inheriting one from Nate. Alia, otherwise I think we need to plan a trip back to SA…..

I’ve never added rolled oats to smoothies, if only because I generally don’t need to pack more carbs/grains into my carbalicious diet! But you could totally add 1/4 – 1/2 cup. You’d definitely want to add liquid in this case though since the oats are so absorbent: try 1/2 – 1 cup of almond milk.

Just made this in my hotel room kitchen! Made for a perfect post-run recovery drink. The peanut butter and banana alone didn’t blend for me so I added a half cup of skim milk (how did your smoothie turn out so liquidy with no dairy?). The addition of spinach was brilliant – didn’t taste it at all (not that I mind its taste). Will definitely be making this one again and again. Thanks Alia!

Osmaan, you are living the life: running, staying in hotels, drinking smoothies. Not bad! If your banana is ripe enough and you break it into a few pieces (see pic) it should create almost a baby food consistency (gross) in the bottom. Spinach has so much liquid in it, that once it breaks down, it adds more liquid to the smoothie. But if your banana wasn’t super ripe or the hotel blender wasn’t up to snuff, you might need more liquid than the tablespoon of water to get things going–I’ll update my post! Thanks for sharing the tip, in case others have the same problem!!

Well, the main difference is that “natural” peanut butter is generally just roasted peanuts and salt blended, whereas “unnatural” (?) generally contains lots of sugar, peanuts, salt and some stabilizers and additives.

Basically, my guess is that if you are someone who wants spinach in your smoothie, you’ll want to go the natural route, BUT if you only have the conventional kind, still go for it! Your smoothie will likely be a little sweeter, so you can add an extra handful of spinach. 😉

I’m a huge sucker for the ‘bad’ peanut butters. Give me a spoon and a jar of Skippy and I will have a smile plastered on my face for hours. Mostly because I am on a sugar high and because my mouth is glued shut because of all of the peanut butter..

This recipe is great. I just made one subbing beet greens for the spinach. Had some frozen nanners on hand, too. Heaven! I am sure it will fuel the afternoon’s Jazzercise blast quite nicely!

Re: PB. (And a disclaimer: My guilty pleasure is cheese. How I hate myself for it! But at least I buy organic. Aren’t the cows treated just a *little* nicer? I know the answer to this and I am working on banishing it from my diet yet again.)

My rawbie fiance always says, “How in the world did we f&#k up peanut butter?” when he thinks of all the miserable additives and preservatives in the big commercial brands. Peanuts+salt=butter. Yes, stirring is a pain but as mentioned you only have to do it once if you refrigerate it. Now, I can’t go back to my old love Skippy if I try! Tastes almost plastic. Ugh!! ;P